UK Defence Secretary says ISIS recruiter was 'legitimate target'.

British IS recruiter Sally-Anne Jones, dubbed the White Widow, was “a legitimate target”, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has said in the closest the UK has come to a confirmation that she was killed in a US drone strike.

Jones was killed close to the border between Syria and Iraq by a US Air Force strike in June, according to and report in The Sun. Sky News also said sources had confirmed the death.

Speaking later, Fallon said: “I won’t comment on the specific strike reported today. However, I can confirm that if you are a British national in Iraq or Syria, and have chosen to fight for Daesh, an illegal organisation preparing and conspiring terrorist attacks on our streets, then you have made yourself a legitimate target and run the risk, every hour of every day, of being on the wrong end of an RAF or USAF missile.”

While the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office is not commenting, a Government source told HuffPost UK the minister’s words all but confirmed the reports.

Jones and her husband Junaid Hussain went to Syria in 2013 to join the so-called Islamic State.

He was killed by a US drone in 2015, and had reportedly been planning “barbaric attacks against the West” including terror plots targeting high profile public commemorations this summer.

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Sally-Anne Jones has reportedly been killed in a US drone strike

News of Jones’ death was not made public amid fears that her 12-year-old son Jojo may also have been killed, according to The Sun.

Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, told the Radio 4′s Today programme that it is “very likely” that Jones had been killed, but added that unless special forces sent a team on the ground to gather DNA, there was no way to be 100% sure.

“But US sources are pretty certain that they have got her,” he said.

Whitehall sources confirm reports that IS supporter White Widow has been killed